Hope Group AA of Cedar Park, Tx

“No matter how much one wishes to try,
how can he turn his own will and his own life
over to the care of whatever God he thinks there is?
A beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed.
Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock,
and have the door ever so slightly open,
we find that we can always open it some more.”
c. 1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 122

Thought to Consider . . .

If you always do what you’ve always done,
you will always be where you’ve always been.

AACRONYMS
H O W  =  Honest, Open, Willing

Just For Today!

Ingredient

From: “Me An Alcoholic?”

Here I found an ingredient that had been lacking in any other effort I had made to save myself. Here was - power! Here was power to live to the end of any given day, power to have the courage to face the next day, power to have friends, power to help people, power to be sane, power to stay sober. That was seven years ago - and many AA meetings ago - and I haven’t had a drink during those seven years. Moreover, I am deeply convinced that so long as I continue to strive, in my bumbling way, toward the principles I first encountered in the earlier chapters of this book, this remarkable power will continue to flow through me. What is this power? With my AA friends, all I can say is that it’s a Power greater than myself. If pressed, all I can do is follow the psalmist who said it long before me: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, pages 386-387

Daily Reflections
“I WAS SLIPPING FAST”

We A.A.’s are active folk enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, . . . So it isn’t surprising that we often tend to slight serious meditation and prayer as something not really necessary.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 96

I had been slipping away from the program for some time, but it took a death threat from a terminal disease to bring me back, and particularly to the practice of the Eleventh Step of our blessed Fellowship.  Although I had fifteen years of sobriety and was still very active in the program, I knew that the quality of my sobriety had slipped badly.  Eighteen months later, a checkup revealed a malignant tumor and a prognosis of certain death within six months.  Despair settled in when I enrolled in a rehab program, after which I suffered two small strokes which revealed two large brain tumors.  As I kept hitting new bottoms I had to ask myself why this was happening to me.  God allowed me to recognize my dishonesty and to become teachable again.  Miracles began to happen.  But primarily I relearned the whole meaning of the Eleventh Step.  My physical condition has improved dramatically, but my illness is minor compared to what I almost lost completely.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
Groping toward God

“More than most people, I think, alcoholics want to know who they are, what this life is about,, whether they have a divine origin and an appointed destiny, and whether there is a system of cosmic justice and love.
“It is the experience of many of us in the early stages of drinking to feel that we have had glimpses of the Absolute and a heightened feeling of identification with the cosmos. While these glimpses and feelings doubtless have a validity, they are deformed and finally swept away in the chemical, spiritual, and emotional damage wrought by the alcohol itself.
“In A.A., and in many religious approaches, alcoholics find a great deal more of what they merely glimpsed and felt while trying to grope their way toward God in alcohol.”

LETTER, 1960
Big Book Quote
“God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your
morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still
sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But
obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it
that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come
to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, A Vision For You, pg. 164

Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

In A.A. we do not speak much of sex. And yet putting sex in its proper place in our lives is one of the rewards that has come to us as a result of our new way of living. The Big Book says that many of us needed an overhauling there. It also says that we subjected each sex relation to this test-was it selfish or not? “We remembered always that our sex powers were God given and therefore good, neither to be used lightly or selfishly, nor to be despised or loathed.” We can ask God to mold our ideals and to help us to live up to them. We can act accordingly. Have I got my sex life under proper control?

Meditation for the Day

“I will lift up my eyes unto the heights whence cometh my help.” Try to raise your thoughts from the depths of the sordid and mean and impure things of the earth to the heights of goodness and decency and beauty. Train your insight by trying to take the higher view. Train it more and more until distant heights become more familiar. The heights of the Lord, whence cometh your help, will become nearer and dearer and the false values of the earth will seem farther away.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not keep my eyes forever downcast. I pray that I may set my sights on higher things.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

“As the alcoholic goes along with his process of prayer,
he begins to add up the results.
If he persists, he will almost surely find more serenity,
more tolerance, less fear, and less anger.
He will acquire a quiet courage, the kind that doesn’t strain him.
He can look at so-called failure and success
for what they really are.
Problems and calamity will begin to mean instruction,
rather than destruction.
He will feel freer and saner. . .
Wonderful and unaccountable things will start to happen.
Twisted relations with family and on the outside
will unaccountably improve.”
Bill W., June 1958
c. 1988AAGrapevine, The Language of the Heart, p. 241

Thought to Consider . . .

Trying to pray is praying.

AACRONYMS
H O P E  =  Hang On; Pray Every day

Just For Today!

Disturbing Reflection

Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

More realism and therefore more honesty about ourselves are the great gains we make under the influence of Step Five. As we took inventory, we began to suspect how much trouble self-delusion had been causing us. This had brought a disturbing reflection. If all our lives we had more or less fooled ourselves, how could we now be so sure that we weren’t still self-deceived? How could we be certain that we had made a true catalog of our defects and had really admitted them, even to ourselves? Because we were still bothered by fear, self-pity, and hurt feelings, it was probable we couldn’t appraise ourselves fairly at all. Too much guilt and remorse might cause us to dramatize and exaggerate our shortcomings. Or anger and hurt pride might be the smoke screen under which we were hiding some of our defects while we blamed others for them. Possibly, too, we were still handicapped by many liabilities, great and small, we never knew we had.

1981, AAWS, Inc., Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pages 58-59

Daily Reflections
A SAFETY NET

Occasionally. . . We are seized with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won’t pray.  When these things happen we should not think too ill of ourselves.  We should simply resume prayer as soon as we can, doing what we know to be good for us.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 105

Sometimes I scream, stomp my feet, and turn my back on my Higher  Power.  Then my disease tells me that I am a failure, and that if I stay angry I’ll surely get drunk.  In those moments of self-will it’s as if I’ve slipped over a cliff and am hanging by one hand.  The above passage is my safety net, in that it urges me to try some new behavior, such as being kind and patient with myself.  It assures me that my Higher Power will wait until I am willing once again to risk letting go, to land in the net, and to pray.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
Easy Does It - but Do It

Procrastination is really sloth in five syllables.

<<<>>>

“My observation is that some people can get by with a certain amount of postponement, but few can live with outright rebellion.”

<<<>>>

“We have succeeded in confronting many a problem drinker with that awful alternative, “This we A.A.’s do, or we die.” Once this much is firmly in his mind, more drinking only turns the coil tighter.
“As many an alcoholic has said, “I came to the place where it was either into A.A. or out the window. So here I am!”

1. TWELVE AND TWELVE, p. 67 - 2. LETTER, 1952 - 3. LETTER, 1950
Big Book Quote

“Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the
past. We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out
of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves. If we
haven’t the will to do this, we ask until it comes. Remember it was
agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over
alcohol.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, Into Action, pg.76

Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

I have gotten over my procrastination. I was always putting things off till tomorrow and as a result they never got done. “There is always another day” was my motto instead of “Do it now.” Under the influence of alcohol, I had grandiose plans. When I was sober I was too busy getting over my drunk to start anything. “Someday I’ll do that”-but I never did it. In A.A. I have teamed that it’s better to make a mistake once in a while than to never do anything at all. We learn by trial and error. But we must act now and not put it off until tomorrow. Have I learned to do it now?

Meditation for the Day

“Do not hide your light under a bushel. Arise and shine, for the light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen in thee.” The glory of the Lord shines in the beauty of your character. It is risen in you, even though you can realize it only in part. “Now you see as in a glass darkly, but later you will see face to face.” The glory of the Lord is too dazzling for mortals to see fully on earth. But some of this glory is risen in you when you try to reflect that light in your life.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may try to be a reflection of the Divine Light. I pray that some of its rays may shine in my life.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

“Taking advantage of technological advances, for example,
AA members with computers
can participate in meetings online,
sharing with fellow alcoholics across the country
or around the world.
Fundamentally, though, the difference between
an electronic meeting and the home group around the corner
is only one of format.
In any meeting, anywhere, AA’s share experience,
strength, and hope with each other,
in order to stay sober and help other alcoholics.
Modem-to-modem or face-to-face,
AA’s speak the language of the heart
in all its power and simplicity.”
c. 2001AAWS, Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to Fourth Edition, p. xxiv

Thought to Consider . . .

AA is where “we” make miracles.

AACRONYMS
H O P E =  Happy Our Program Exists.

Just For Today!

Baffling Feature

From: “More About Alcoholism“

For those who are unable to drink moderately the question is how to stop altogether. We are assuming, of course, that the reader desires to stop. Whether such a person can quit upon a nonspiritual basis depends upon the extent to which he has already lost the power to choose whether he will drink or not. Many of us felt that we had plenty of character. There was a tremendous urge to cease forever. Yet we found it impossible. This is the baffling feature of alcoholism as we know it - this utter inability to leave it alone, no matter how great the necessity or the wish.

2001, AAWS, Inc., Alcoholics Anonymous, page 34

Daily Reflections
OVERCOMING LONELINESS

Almost without exception, alcoholics are tortured by loneliness.  Even before our drinking got bad and people began to cut us off,  nearly all of us suffered the feeling that we didn’t quite belong.

AS BILL SEES IT, p. 90

The agonies and the void that I often felt inside occur less and less frequently in my life today.  I have learned to cope with solitude.  It is only when I am alone and calm that I am able to communicate with God, for He cannot reach me when I am in turmoil.  It is good to maintain contact with God at all times, but it is absolutely essential that, when everything seems to go wrong, I maintain that contact through prayer and meditation.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
Results of Prayer

As the doubter tries the process of prayer, he should begin to add up the results. If he persists, he will almost surely find more serenity, more tolerance, less fear, and less anger. He will acquire a quiet courage, the kind that isn’t tension-ridden. He can look at “failure” and “success” for what these really are. Problems and calamity will begin to mean his instruction, instead of his destruction. He will feel freer and saner.
The idea that he may have been hypnotizing himself by auto-suggestion will become laughable. His sense of purpose and of direction will increase. His anxieties will commence to fade. His physical health will be likely to improve. Wonderful and unaccountable things will start to happen. Twisted relations in his family and on the outside will improve surprisingly.

GRAPEVINE, JUNE 1958
Big Book Quote
“Putting out of our minds the wrongs others had done, we resolutely
looked for our own mistakes. Where had we been selfish, dishonest,
self-seeking and frightened? Though a situation had not been entirely
our fault, we tried to disregard the other person involved entirely.
Where were we to blame? The inventory was ours, not the other man’s.
When we saw our faults we listed them. We placed them before us in
black and white. We admitted our wrongs honestly and were willing to
set these matters straight.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 67
Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

Everyone has two personalities, a good and a bad. We are all dual personalities to some extent. When we were drinking, the bad personality was in control. We did things when we were drunk that we would never do when we were sober. When we sober up, we are different people. Then we wonder how we could have done the things we did. But we drink again, and again our bad side comes out. So we are back and forth, always in conflict with our other selves, always in a stew. This division of our selves is not good; we must somehow become unified. We do this by giving ourselves wholeheartedly to A.A. and to sobriety. Have I become unified?

Meditation for the Day

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of Thy Lord.” These words are for many ordinary people whom the world may pass by, unrecognizing. Not to the world-famed, the proud, the wealthy, are these words spoken, but to the quiet followers who serve God unobtrusively yet faithfully, who bear their crosses bravely and put a smiling face to the world. “Enter into the joy of Thy Lord.” Pass into that fuller spiritual life, which is a life of joy and peace.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may not desire the world’s applause. I pray that I may not seek rewards for doing what I believe is right.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

“We liked AA all right,
and were quick to say that it had done miracles.
But we recoiled from meditation and prayer
as obstinately as the scientist who refused to perform
a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong.
Of course, we finally did experiment,
and when unexpected results followed, we felt different;
in fact we knew different;
and so were sold on meditation and prayer.
And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries.
It has been said that ‘almost the only scoffers at prayer
are those who never tried it enough.’ “
c. 1952AAWS, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 97

Thought to Consider . . .

Meditation means trusting the silence around me for a while,
as if it were an answer I had long sought.

AACRONYMS
F A I T H  =  Finding Answers In The Heart

Just For Today!

Caring

From “Brothers in Our Defects”:

“The identification that one alcoholic has with another is mysterious, spiritual  almost incomprehensible. But it is there. I ‘feel’ it. Today I feel that I can help people and that they can help me.

“It is a new and exciting feeling for me to care for someone; to care what they are feeling, hoping for, praying for; to know their sadness, joy, horror, sorrow, grief; to want to share those feelings so that someone can have relief.”

1990 AAWS, Inc.; Daily Reflections, pg. 118

Daily Reflections
A DAILY REPRIEVE

What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 85

Maintaining my spiritual condition is like working out every day, planning for the marathon, swimming laps, jogging.  It’s staying in good shape spiritually, and that requires prayer and meditation.  The single most important way for me to improve my conscious contact with a Higher Power is to pray and meditate.  I am as powerless over alcohol as I am to turn back the waves of the sea; no human force had the power to overcome my alcoholism.  Now I am able to breathe the air of joy, happiness and wisdom.  I have the power to love and react to events around me with the eyes of a faith in things that are not readily apparent.  My daily reprieve means that, no matter how difficult or painful things appear today, I can draw on the power of the program to stay liberated from my cunning, baffling and powerful illness.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
Running the Whole Show

Most people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole show and is forever trying to arrange the lights, the scenery, and the rest of the players in his own way. If his arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as he wished, the show would be great.
What usually happens? The show doesn’t come off very well. Admitting he may be somewhat at fault, he is sure that other people are more to blame. He becomes angry, indignant, self-pitying.
Is he not really a self-seeker even when trying to be useful? Is he not a victim of the delusion that he can wrest satisfaction and happiness out of this world if he only manages well?

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, pp. 60-61
Big Book Quote
“We needed to ask ourselves but one short question. ‘Do I now
believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power
greater than myself?’ As soon as a man can say that he does believe,
or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on
his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this
simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be
built.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, We Agnostics, pg. 47
Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

I have gotten rid of most of my inner conflicts. I was always at war with myself I was doing things that I did not want to do. I was waking up in strange places and wondering how I got there. I was full of recklessness when I was drunk and full of remorse when I was sober. My life didn’t make sense. It was full of broken resolves and frustrated hopes and plans. I was getting nowhere fast. No wonder my nerves were all shot. I was bumping up against a blank wall and I was dizzy from it. A.A. taught me how to get organized and to stop fighting against myself. Have I gotten rid of inner conflicts?

Meditation for the Day

“When two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” The spirit of God comes upon His followers when they are all together at one time, in one place, and with one accord. When two or three consecrated souls are together at a meeting place, the spirit of God is there to help and guide them. Where any sincere group of people are together, reverently seeking the help of God, His power and His spirit are there to inspire them.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may be in accord with the members of my group. I pray that I may feel the strength of a consecrated group.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012

“Though I still find it difficult to accept
today’s pain and anxiety with any great degree of serenity
– as those more advanced in the spiritual life
seem able to do –
I can give thanks for present pain nevertheless.
I find the willingness to do this
by contemplating the lessons learned from past suffering
– lessons which have led to the blessings I now enjoy.
I can remember how the agonies of alcoholism,
the pain of rebellion and thwarted pride,
have often led me to God’s grace, and so to a new freedom.”
Bill W., Grapevine, March 1962
c. 1967AAWS, As Bill Sees It, p. 266

Thought to Consider . . .

Joy isn’t the absence of pain — it’s the presence of God.

AACRONYMS
A B C =  Acceptance, Belief, Change

Just For Today!

Wrong

From “When A.A. Came of Age”:

“After a long interval we heard from the promoter. He wrote, ‘You told us that outside enterprises can be fine and very helpful. But you also said that they could not be mixed with A.A. I figured that they could be, and should be. Well, you folks at Headquarters were right and I was wrong.’

“With his letter, the promoter sent us a card, which he had already mailed to every group in the United States. It was folded like a golf score card, and on the outside was printed, ‘Group so-and-so, place so-and-so. Rule No. 62.’ When the card was unfolded a single pungent sentence met the eye: ‘Don’t take yourself too damned seriously.’”

2001 AAWS, Inc.; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pg. 104

Daily Reflections
VITAL SUSTENANCE

Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine.  And for the same reason.  When we refuse air, light or food, the  body suffers.  And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support.

TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS p. 97

Step Eleven doesn’t have to overwhelm me.  Conscious contact with God can be as simple, and as profound, as conscious contact with another human being.  I can smile.  I can listen.  I can forgive.  Every encounter with another is an opportunity for prayer, for acknowledging God’s presence within me.

Today I can bring myself a little closer to my Higher Power.  The more I choose to seek the beauty of God’s work in other people, the more certain of His presence I will become.

Copyright 1990 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC.
As Bill Sees It
Two Authorities

Many people wonder how A.A. can function under a seeming anarchy. Other societies have to have law and force and sanction and punishment, administered by authorized people. Happily for us, we found that we need no human authority whatever. We have two authorities which are far more effective. One is benign, the other malign.
There is God, our Father, who very simply says, “I am waiting for you to do my will.” The other authority is named John Barleycorn, and he says, “You had better do God’s will or I will kill you.”

<<<>>>

The A.A. Traditions are neither rules, regulations, nor laws. We obey them willingly because we ought to and because we want to. Perhaps the secret of their power lies in the fact that these life-giving communications spring out of living experience and are rooted in love.

1. A.A. COMES OF AGE, p. 105 - 2. A.A. TODAY, p. 11
Big Book Quote
“We never apologize to anyone for depending upon our Creator. We can
laugh at those who think spirituality the way of weakness.
Paradoxically, it is the way of strength. The verdict of the ages is
that faith means courage. All men of faith have courage. They trust
their God. We never apologize for God. Instead we let Him
demonstrate, through us, what He can do. We ask Him to remove our
fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once,
we commence to outgrow fear.”

Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, How It Works, pg. 68
Twenty Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought for the Day

I am less sensitive and my feelings are less easily hurt. I no longer take myself so seriously. It didn’t used to take much to insult me, to feel that I had been slighted or left on the outside. What happens to me now is not so important. One cause of our drinking was that we couldn’t take it, so we escaped the unpleasant situation. We have learned to take it on the chin if necessary and smile. When I am all wrapped up in A.A., I do not notice the personal slights so much. They do not seem to matter so much. I have learned to laugh at self-pity because it’s so childish. Am I less sensitive?

Meditation for the Day

God’s miracle-working power is as manifest today as it was in the past. It still works miracles of change in lives and miracles of healing in twisted minds. When a person trusts wholly in God and leaves to Him the choosing of the day and hour, there is God’s miracle-working power becoming manifest in that persons life. So we can trust in God and have boundless faith in His power to make us whole again, whenever He chooses.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may feel sure that there is nothing that God cannot accomplish in changing my life. I pray that I may have faith in His miracle-working power.

Hazelden Foundation PO Box 176 Center City, MN 55012